Cryostasis is a unique mix of different game play mechanics that you won't find in any other survival horror. Unique weapons from a world war time period to new inventions and the story makes you think unlike other games were the story is fed to you with a silver spoon. You will fight an array of different ice zombies and boss fights, each with different tactics to defeat them, requiring you to think on your toes. Using heat as a source of health and energy is also unique, keeping you stressed about staying warm in a arctic environment. The graphics are actually quiet remarkable for a 2009 game, but at the same time they require good hardware for top settings. Only reason i am not giving this game an 10 is because the games bugs are evident and the lack of re-playability let this game down. Besides that.. A great game from a unexpected source.

Engaging, thrilling, and atmospheric. Pathologic is a wonderful experience in futility and despair. I wouldn't necessarily call the game fun, especially with its increasing difficulty purposely added to mimic the harsh reality of the game's situation; however, it is definitely one of the few games of its kind. If you enjoy survival horror games, this needs to be on the top of your list.

I really liked this game. So much attention to detail and so many little things going on. You play as one of three people (the third is unlocked later) and experience the tragedy unfolding through the eyes of a different person with a different outlook. This game is as surreal as it is cerebral and the level of detail put into this one makes it that much better.

Do you like crazy, janky Russian games with poor translations? Do you want to play a game where the crap-sack world will make the living envy the dead? Ever want to trade your gun for a can of vegetables so you won't starve to death? If so, you should play Pathologic. I'm not gonna lie. The mechanics can be pretty awful, but you may like the twisted atmosphere as much as I did. Now if only someone could explain to me exactly what's going on in this game.

Although I haven't finished it yet, there's no denying that Pathologic is a very surreal experience that will cater to only the finest of gaming tastes.

The story starts out with you watching a play and then choosing 1 of 3 characters (third being locked untill playthrough) and involves your quest to help a town where a plague is running rampant. The beauty of this story isn't in the actual story line, but in the small nuances as to how it is told. You'll find that all important characters have real life foto's and 4th walls are often broken.

The graphics and controllers are pretty badly done, as is the writing and the voicework, but that only speaks for it's charm.

If you're looking for a game that's completly unlike anything you've ever seen, look no further!

A trippy game. I only recommend this game if you're really willing to invest the time into it and are looking for more of an artistic experience than a game-y experience.

A really strange but at the same time fascinating game. Might be a bit too confusing for some players who are not used to "total" freedom. You often have to figure out for yourself where to go and when.

Pathologic is one of the strangest games since long. It´s starts with just defying to be categorized. It´s draws from (melee) combat FPS and survival, because you can also die from hunger or decease. So monitor your needs closely, if you want to survive. It draws from RPG, because it has lots of NPC to interact with and it takes place in realtime, meaning the game world around you advances and eventually ends with or without you taking any action. 
Actually this may be more like a brutal survival game, where you trade ANYTHING for food happily, than any other genre. It´s also the most frustrating part in Pathologic.
 And there are even some more twists to the setting.

Like, the further you progress, the further the plague you are trying to fight progresses. Closing off more and more of the town, which is put under quarantine. The world is literally closing in on you. This adds to the much uncomfortable tension the game already sets when you begin the game. 


You can choose from 3 different characters and they all see their own, very different side of the story. Also in the meantime, the two other characters, that you are not controlling just now, work against you. This gives the game an incredible depth of story telling and narrative freedom. This freedom includes that most NPC craft their own intrigues, to make you do things.

So, to fully understand the city, the origin of the plague and it´s cure and the symbolism of it all, you need to play this game three times, while parts of the truth are carefully kept from you.


This game has also lots of sickening moments: the streets filled with deceased bodies and dying people, the murderous children, the merciless soldiers, the rumors and eventually your own actions. And when you reach the game´s climax, the understanding how it all fits together, you feel like vomiting for relief, after all the hours of unnerving and mind-grinding gameplay. 


Did I say „game“?, Surely this is no game. Developer Ice-pick Lodge called Pathologic “an exercise in decision making”. This game hurts and offends like a Lars von Trier movie or a Damien Hirst formaldehyde sculpture. The bitter, disillusioning, bleak side of Art. And Art it is.

There is nothing even remotely comparable to „Pathologic“ on the software market.

In my quest to find something new and different, and fueled by the excellent three part analysis of this game done by the Rock Paper Shotgun website, I purchased Pathologic. The reviews already posted here pretty much nailed it; it's a weird, surreal game. There's a very forboding atmosphere, and that adds to the experience of trying to save as many townspeople as you can. The graphics are pretty much average, and if you have a multi-core CPU, you may have to alt-tab to the desktop to set the game's affinity to one core so that the game can run properly. The Russian-to-English translation is passable at best, but still playable (as long as you don't play as the female Devotress character...however, a planned English translation patch by an Ice Pick Lodge programmer may fix this). This game is definitely not for everyone, but if you're interested, please Google for the Rock Paper Shotgun articles on this game to read what it's about; Ice Pick Lodge set out to make something different, and in that they succeeded.

This is at once an immensely interesting and immensely frustrating game. The premise essentially that you spend twelve days in a town quarrantined for a virus outbreak as one of three characters. The interesting part is that their stories interweave and effect the main story throughout; i.e. you take actions as one character and then see the repercussions as another (it's hard to explain this without spoiling the surprises!)

The graphics are somewhat stark, but this only adds to the atmosphere of the game. The English translation is riddled with problems, but rather than detracting from the game this only adds to the otherworldly atmosphere and at times is quite poetic.

Survival plays a big role in the game, with keeping yourself fed, healthy and able to fight being highly important. Combat can be horribly frustrating, mainly due to the engine rather than any gameplay consideration.

Anyone whose tastes reach for the more bizarre or who enjoys a good psychological thriller will probably find this highly enjoyable. This isn't just a unique game, it's an experience.

First off: This game is Strange, with a capital "S". The plot is that you have been sent to cure a village of a mysterious plague. Reasonable. You play it like a first person shooter/adventure game (think Deus Ex). Again, not too weird. The half human half raven narrator's that no one else can see? Quite odd. To say much more would spoil too much, and as this game relies heavily on it's slowly unveiled plot it would be rude to ruin it.

If any of that interests you you would not go far wrong purchasing this game. However be warned that the translation from Russian (it's a Russian game) is terrible. At first you may think people are being cryptic, but no, they just can;t speak English very well. There is a translation project running from the developer's forum, but it is far from finished. This is of course quite irritating and somewhat of a barrier to your enjoyment, but you can muddle your way through and still find allot to like in the odd little production.

The game has very poor support for built-in audio-cards so, if you find yourself having sound issues, the best way to deal with them is disabling sound altogether. There is no other know way to address the problem, unless you plan on buying an external sound card. Note that on-board audio might still cause inconsistencies, even if you have an external sound card in the computer. You should disable the chip from bios.

Therefore I had to try and play the game with no sound. It made the game boring and flat and I quickly abandoned the pursuit. Shame it looked like it could be good.